"Spirit Tree" Joplin's Tornado Landmark in 360° Panorama

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A year ago a deadly EF-5 tornado ripped through the city of Joplin, Missouri, killing 161 people and damaging or destroying about 7,500 homes and 500 other buildings. Despite it all, the city is well into a significant recovery mode but there is still work to be done. Along the tornado's path at the intersection of East 20th Street and the Kansas City Southern Railway tracks, where Dillon’s grocery store used to be, now stands the colorfully painted “Spirit Tree” — a new landmark for the city of Joplin. Its surroundings are still somewhat vacant but here and there is evidence of new homes being built and new hope as the survivors work hard to recover. It's worth noting that if you perform a search the tornado path on Google Maps you can see a bird's eye view of the devastation from last year. (This information is current as of May 23, 2012.)

Rose O'Neill's Bonniebrook Homestead in 360° Panorama

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Rose O'Neill and Kewpie dolls

The Ozarks were my destination while traveling along Route 66 in these past few blog posts. Specifically what I wanted to see was Bonniebrook, the home of Rose O’Neill (1874-1944) an American illustrator, author, artist, poet, sculptor, inventor, suffragette, and creator of the world famous Kewpies.

Due to some heavy road construction en route to Bonniebrook, I arrived considerably later than planned. In fact, when I got there the place was about to close in 30 minutes but Susan Scott, the President of Bonniebrook Historical Society, graciously held the facility open for me and personally gave me a guided tour of the Kewpie Museum and the art gallery.

The museum houses antique Kewpie ephemera including anything you could brand with a Kewpie from dolls to door knockers. The gallery contains nearly sixty original works of art by O'Neill that are a radical departure from the commercial success of her Kewpie line. It's fantastic! However, due to copyright restrictions no photos were allowed in this part of the facility.

O'Neill and "Embrace of the Trees"

Afterwards, Susan handed me off to Larry, the groundskeeper and tour guide for the Bonniebrook house.  Both Susan and Larry made my visit so delightful and I can't thank them enough for their hospitality!

Because of Susan and Larry's thoroughness in sharing the life and works of America's most beloved women artists my takeaway is that Rose O'Neill was not only a gifted artist, but also an archetypal "hippie chick" and a radical free thinker that was way ahead of her time.

Another thing I learned about O'Neill was that she studied sculpture under the tutelage of Auguste Rodin after  being awarded with the associate of the Société des Beaux Arts and studying art in Paris in 1906.  The above panorama features a piece is entitled "Embrace of the Trees" that is based on the myth of Apollo and Daphne. It's worth noting that this sculpture was considered vulgar and distasteful by people of her day.

More panoramas of Bonniebrook including the family cemetary where Rose O'Neill is interred can be seen by clicking through the images below. There's also a wonderful radio piece about Rose O'Neill from Ozarks Public Radio on KSMU that you can listen to here.


Bonniebrook

O'Neill Family Cemetery

Scotty's Classic Cars - Arma, Kansas

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For 12 years Scotty's Classic Cars Museum in Arma, Kansas, educated and entertained visitors about the automobile history and its impact on society through the maintenance of exhibitions, publications, collections, records and a library.

Sadly the museum was shuttered in 2011 having sold most of the contents to the Central Texas Museum of Automotive History in Rosanky, Texas.

As of April 2012, eight remaining vehicles are for sale and can be glimpsed in the windows of this panorama.

I truly regret having missed an opportunity to photograph the interior when it was still open however below are some photos from tagged photos on Flickr.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower in 360° Panorama

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Frank Lloyd Wright's signature tile

The Price Tower was originally intended to be built in Manhattan sometime in the 1920s but when the Great Depression struck, the project was shelved only to be adapted for the Oklahoma prairie in the 1950s.  It is the only extant skyscraper by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The building's nickname "the tree that escaped the crowded forest" not only refers to the notion that it was plucked from the "crowded forest" of Manhattan skyscrapers and placed to stand alone on the wide open Oklahoma prairie but also to its design: the Price Tower is supported by a central "trunk" of four elevator shafts anchored in place by a deep central foundation, much like a tree is by its taproot. Nineteen cantilevered floors fan out from this central core, like the branches of a tree. The outer walls float off from the floors and are encased in patinated copper "leaves".

Price Tower first opened in the mid-20th century as a multi-use building featuring business offices, shops, and apartments with oil tycoon Harold Price, its patron and primary tenant, keeping his corporate headquarters there. Today, the building operates as the Price Tower Arts Center, a civic art complex, focusing on art, architecture and design. Features include a museum, tours of the historic tower, a hotel and restaurant.

I arrived a half-hour before closing and would have missed an opportunity to view the interior of this building if it weren't for Taylor Rasmussen, a fellow Wright enthusiast and photographer who also happens to be an employee at Price Tower. Seeing as I had come a fair piece distance to visit, Taylor graciously gave my sister and me a private tour.

Below: While most of the interior of the building is off-limits to cameras due to copyright restrictions, below is a click-through image to an indoor panorama of the upper loft of the Copper Bar located on the 15th floor that was shot with permission. It's not my best pano as there are several stitching errors that I was unable to resolve. Normally I would just omit a pano like this from viewing except it's the only one I've got and it shows the subtle triangular detailing of the red pigmented concrete floors.



Copper Bar loft at Price Tower - 15th floor
(Click through image to view panorama)
Below: Alternate view of the Price Tower: on the left side of this panorama beyond the colorful buffalo statue is the Bartlesville Community Center.



Alternate view Price Tower from the Bartlesville Community Center
(Click through image to view panorama)

LAST Day for this week's {Feature Friday}!

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 As many of you know, we do something called {Feature Friday} where every Friday we have at least one of our items highlighted/featured and offered for a discounted price for that week.  If you aren't already signed up to receive our Newsletters, be sure that you do sign up, otherwise you could be missing out on some great opportunities to SAVE big!  To sign up, simply visit our website and enter your email address in the box down in the bottom right hand corner! This week's {Feature Friday} info can be found HERE in case you missed it! Since we are only able to post 3 pictures per product listing on our website, I often have LOTS of pictures of each product that never get to be seen!  I thought today I would share a few more *never-before-seen* pictures of the items that are on SALE in this week's {Feature Friday} sale that ends tonight!  These pictures show our Color Collection Flowers with the beaded centers as well as the fashion rhinestone centers- both on SALE for almost 40% off:

 Here is the Coral Hot Pink shown clipped to a sun hat
 And for those of you that have been asking- here is a picture of the yellow petti romper...the color looks a little less vibrant in this picture then it actually is due to the editing, I just haven't had a chance to list this picture in the shop yet ;) And these pictures show one of my very favorite lace rosettes that we are almost out of.  You can find the link to this flower HERE
 And this headband shown above, a picture of our VERY popular but never pictured until now, the Triple White Dainty Flower headband in off-white- another picture I haven't had a chance to list in the shop...you can find this listing HERE This picture shows our Taylor in deep teal...thought it would be fun to show you what the Taylor looks like in a color other then yellow which is how it's pictured on the website ;) And here (above) is another picture of our Color Collection which is on sale through tonight as a clip instead of a headband...it adds just the right touch to senior portraits, messy buns, clipped to a cardigan etc.Thank you to www.MelissaLynPhotography.com for all the gorgeous photos!  I hope to share more of the *never-before-shared* photos of all our products- there are lots!! ;)

Caramel Cake - Book Review and Giveaway - Basic to Brilliant, Y'all

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When the ever-charming Virginia Willis sent me her Basic to Brilliant, Y'all for review, I couldn't decide which recipe to make first. Of course, the Mini Country Ham Cheddar Biscuits caught my Southern-on-my-father's-side eye. And the Southern Salad Macedoine. And lots of wonderful seafood dishes. Then I came to page 252 and my Southern grandmother's cake jumped out at me! 

The version in Basic to Brilliant, Y'all is the one Virginia's grandmother made. It's a three-layer cake, but since my grandmother made hers with just two layers, I used only two. It's always nice to have a layer in the freezer for a rainy day, isn't it!

Never much of a candy fan, I've never bought a candy thermometer for my well-equipped kitchen. But my trusty Splash-Proof Super-Fast Thermapen Instant Read Thermometer works beautifully for this; no need for a thermometer that clips to the pan, but you will need a thermometer.

Besides wonderful recipes, each with an optional "brilliant" touch to add to the "basic" recipe, you will find lots of stories about the author's Southern childhood and her time in France. 

The drool-worthy pictures by photographer Helene Dujardin next to Virginia's delectable recipes make this book hard to read without getting hungry!

Dede's Burnt Caramel Cake

(Makes three 9-inch layers)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the pans
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pans
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature, well beaten
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Burnt Caramel Icing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour three 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with waxed or parchment paper. Butter and flour the paper. Sit together the flour and the baking powder.

In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the flour mixture [and the wet mixture] to the butter-sugar mixture, alternating between the dry and wet ingredients in three portions, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean and the cakes start pulling away from the sides of the pans, about 25 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool slightly. Invert onto the rack to cool completely.

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a cardboard cake round. Spread with the still-warm frosting. Repeat with remaining layers, placing the final layer bottom side up. Working quickly, use a small off-set spatula to spread the icing gently around the cake. Let stand for 2 hours to allow the icing to set before serving. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Burnt Caramel Icing

(Makes about 2 cups)

2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream, plus more if needed to loosen
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

In a heavy cast-iron skillet, heat 1/2 cup of the sugar over medium-high heat. Stir until dissolved, then do not stir again; simply shake the pan occasionally until the mixture reaches the caramel stage, 320 to 335 degrees, on a candy thermometer.

Meanwhile, in a heavy saucepan, combine the remaining 2 cups sugar, the butter, and the cream. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

When the sugar reaches the caramel stage, immediately pour it into the cream mixture and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring once or twice, until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, 232 to 240 degrees. Remove from the heat; add the vanilla and salt and stir to combine. Place on a rack and set aside until just cool enough to touch, 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until creamy, 5 to 7 minutes. Place the bowl of icing in a bowl of warm water to keep it loose and fluid while frosting the cake. If it starts to set too firmly, you may need to add warm heavy cream to loosen it.

Recipe reprinted by permission from Basic to Brilliant, Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress them Up for Company, copyright © 2011. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House. Photo credit: Helene Dujardin © 2011. For more information visit www.virginiawillis.com.

That's the "basic;" you'll have to buy the book to get the "brilliant"!


Basic to Brilliant, Y'all Giveaway
One winner will receive a copy of Basic to Brilliant, Y'all from Ten Speed Press. All residents of the continental United States (apologies to my international readers) who enter before 11:59 pm Eastern time Wednesday December 26 will be put into a random drawing. Two additional ways to enter below - three chances to win! Winner will be announced here in the comments before noon Eastern time on Thursday December 27. If I don't hear back from the winner of the random drawing by 11:59 am Eastern time Sunday December 30, another drawing will be held and a new winner selected from the original entrants (those who commented before the giveaway deadline).

Buy It Now Basic to Brilliant, Y'all is available online at Amazon. 

To enter the contest, please:

• post a comment below (and please include your email address in the body of your comment); also, it would be gracious to post a comment on the author's blog.

Two additional ways to enter (for a total of 3 chances):

• follow @VirginiaWillis on Twitter and post a comment below that you have done so.
• follow @delightfulrepas on Twitter, tweet about the contest by copying and pasting the following: Entered to win a copy of Basic to Brilliant, Y’all @delightfulrepas http://delightfulrepast.blogspot.com #cookbook #giveaway - (AND post a comment below that you have done so.)

Disclosure: The book for this giveaway is being provided by Ten Speed Press. I was given a copy of Basic to Brilliant, Y'all for review, and all opinions shared are my own.

Gluten-Free Pancakes and Equipment Review - All-Clad Hard Anodized Nonstick Griddle

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Though just a small percentage of people have celiac disease, a lot of people are sensitive to gluten or simply choose to forego gluten for any number of reasons. Since several people in my circle fall into that last category, I've developed a number of gluten-free recipes over the last few years. Gluten-free pancakes had just worked their way to the top of my to-do list when All-Clad sent me their All-Clad Hard Anodized Nonstick 11-Inch Square Griddle for review.

I was thrilled! I've always preferred a square griddle, but have been making-do with a round one for the past few years. You can only make three pancakes at a time on a round griddle, but you can make four at a time on a square one. Most of my All-Clad pans are the plain, uncoated stainless steel; but I prefer nonstick in a griddle. This one, along with their new B3 Hard Anodized collection, is sold exclusively at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It is very similar to the All-Clad LTD Griddle. 

This is the heaviest nonstick griddle I've ever had, and that makes a huge difference. I've never gotten such even browning with any of the griddles I've tried! And the PFOA-free nonstick coating is very effective and will, I'm sure, hold up for many years to come. 

The enclosed information sheet said the use of nonstick cooking spray is not recommended as it may reduce the performance of the nonstick surface. I never use the spray on a griddle anyway - I like to brush on just the thinnest film of butter right before ladling on the pancake batter.

My recipe can be made with regular milk (I use 2%) and the buttermilk powder as written below; or with 1 cup regular milk and 1/2 cup buttermilk, sour cream or plain yogurt; or with regular milk alone. I keep buttermilk powder in the fridge at all times so I don't have to buy a quart of buttermilk when I only need 1/2 cup.

Of course, you can use 1 1/2 cups of regular unbleached flour (leave out the xanthan gum) or 1 1/2 cups of your favorite gluten-free blend in the recipe. I use all sorts of combinations, depending on what qualities I want for a particular recipe or, in some cases, what gluten-free flours and starches I happen to have on hand. I do not recommend garbanzo bean flour for many things (don't ask!). Tell me about your gluten-free pancake successes and failures.


Gluten-Free Pancakes

(Makes fourteen 5-inch round pancakes)

2/3 packed cup quinoa flour
1/2 packed cup brown rice flour
1/3 packed cup potato starch or gluten-free cornstarch
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
3 tablespoons buttermilk powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 If you want to serve everyone at the same time, preheat oven to 200 degrees (actually, I now have a warming drawer) and, as each batch is cooked, place the pancakes slightly overlapping on an ovenproof platter, cover loosely with foil and keep in the oven.

2 In medium bowl (I use a 2-quart Pyrex glass measure), whisk together flours, starch, flaxseed meal, xanthan gum, buttermilk powder, sugar, baking powder and salt.

3 In small bowl (I use a 4-cup Pyrex glass measure), whisk together eggs, 1 1/4 cups milk and melted butter. Pour into dry mixture and whisk gently until just combined, adding as much of the reserved 1/4 cup of milk as needed for proper consistency. Let batter stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before using.

4 During last 5 minutes of batter resting, heat griddle over medium heat. Preheating the griddle properly is the key to good pancakes; it takes about 5 minutes, not a minute less. Don't try to speed it up by turning the heat on high, especially if you're using a nonstick griddle.

5 Using a 1/4-cup measuring cup, ladle batter onto hot griddle (preheated for 5 minutes over medium heat, drops of water should dance and disappear quickly). Cook about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on each side. Don't rush it (like I often do!); wait for the bubbles to appear and break.

Serve with butter and real maple syrup that has been warmed. Or with fruit and/or fruit syrup.

Note: Check out my Recipes/Reviews index page for more gluten-free recipes.

JustLuxe: Champagne Tasting in Reims and Epernay

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For my next JustLuxe piece, I return to one of my favorite French travel topics: taking a day trip from Paris to Champagne for some fun speeding through the countryside aboard the TGV, touring cathedrals and basilicas, sampling some of the world's best wines, and eating some of France's most renowned cuisine.


All in all, it's a great way to spend a day (or more!) in France if you like champagne and have a little extra time on your next trip to Paris.

You can see all my recommendations for both Reims and Epernay in my JustLuxe story here.

LA Confidential Magazine: Private Dining Rooms for Holiday Parties

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Holiday season is upon us, and for all of you whose duties include planning the office holiday party - or maybe just those who want to take their friends and loved ones for a nice meal out at this time of year, I compiled a list of great restaurants around Los Angeles with delicious private dining experiences and beautiful settings for your next dinner party out that appears in the December issue of LA Confidential Magazine.

You can find my full article here, but just for a sneak peek, the list includes some of my favorites like Cecconi's, Culina, Hatfield's and Mozza, among others. Bon appetit!

LA Confidential Magazine: 10 Years in LA Food

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LA Confidential Magazine is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and as part of a special anniversary feature, they asked me to come up with a list of ten food trends from the past ten years that have defined the LA dining scene.


Needless to say, that whetted my appetite, and after having a good, hard think and polling my foodie friends, I came up with this list that includes some obvious topics like the advent of food truck culture and the speakeasy cocktail trend, as well as some interesting moments like the opening of Mozza and the recent reopenings of Spago and Nobu in Malibu.

All in all, it was a lot of fun to think back to all the good meals I've enjoyed with an eye toward outlining just what's made eating in LA so great for the past decade.

Laser Light Hair Growth Device to Treat Hair Loss and Thinning Hair

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The HairMax LaserComb Delivers Effective Laser Light Energy for Beautiful, Healthy Hair Growth Energize weakened hair follicles, accelerate hair growth rate, reverse the thinning process, increase density, thickness and fullness of hair. FDA Cleared: The HairMax LaserComb is the ONLY home use Laser Light Medical Device FDA Cleared to Treat Hair Loss and Promote Hair Growth for Men and Women*Clinically Proven:  Seven independent clinical studies prove that the HairMax LaserComb is a safe and effective treatment for hair loss. 93% of men and women in these studies experienced significant hair growth with an average increase of 149 additional hairs per square inch. Doctor Recommended: HairMax is backed by a distinguished 30 member medical advisory board and recommended by physicians worldwide. Non Drug Treatment with NO serious side effects.   Previously, laser therapy for hair loss was available only through doctors and hair loss specialists. These treatments were both time consuming and expensive. Now, through the HairMax Salon partnership program, you can offer the complete HairMax Hair Growth system to your clients to use in the comfort and convience of their own homes. *The HairMax LaserComb is indicated to treat Androgenetic Alopecia, and promote hair growth in males who have Norwood Hamilton Classifications of IIa to V and in females who have Ludwig (Savin) I-4, II-1, II-2, or frontal patterns of hair loss and who both have Fitzpatrick Skin Types I to IV.

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Salon Client Data iPhone and iPad App!

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iPhone and iPad App for Salon Professionals!
 
“This app is a must-have business tool that will help you organize and market to your most valuable asset, your client list.”

http://www.salonclientdata.com/

The app can be purchased on iTunes for one time fee of only $9.99, plus tax.

To buy it now - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/salon-client-data/id542839110?mt=8 iPhone and iPad App for Salon





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The Nonblond Leading the Blond: New York’s Go-to Colorist for Swedish Blondes

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LIKE Russian cheekbones or Italian suntans, Swedish hair (or the idea of it, anyway) has always been one of those discrete national features envied by women the world over. Flaxen-pale and fairy-tale-fine, it’s what American women have been trying to fake for decades, ever since Anita Ekberg swished around in the Trevi Fountain.

Yana Paskova for The New York TimesMirjam Bayoumi, in her salon, shows Gunilla Lindblad, right, her freshly cut hair.

You see these towheaded ice queens strutting through SoHo in perfect Acne pistol boots and Filippa K stretch jeans — but what remains invisible is the help they get. 
Her name is Mirjam Bayoumi, and you would probably never find her on your own. Tucked away into an anonymous Yorkville block on the Upper East Side, her salon, all clear wood and bright light, attracts not only Princess Madeleine of Sweden, but also some of her most stylish subjects: Swedish designers, Swedish bloggers, Swedish media moguls, Swedish makeup artists — an almost exclusively Swedish group, all after that ineffable snowy blond that the rest of us always assume is natural. 
“Most women in Sweden are dirty blond, and I would say 96 percent color their hair,” said Ms. Bayoumi, herself naturally brunet. “You’re born blond, and as you get older, it gets a little darker, a little ashier.”  But, she added, “blond, that’s what you saw as you grew up, and that’s how you want to be the rest of your life.” 
Ms. Bayoumi, 34, opened her salon, which carries her name, in 2009 and is now a sort of den mother for the city’s Swedish expats, who go there for the raw blond highlights and stay for the native-tongue gossip, Gevalia coffee and dog-eared issues of Scandinavian fashion magazines. 
“When I first came here, I went to a cheap place in the West Village, and they ruined my hair,” Olivia Malmqvist, 30, the marketing manager for H & M USA, said in a phone interview. “After that, I did some research.” 
Four years later, Ms. Malmqvist is a loyal Mirjam devotee. “Your hair is very personal,” she said. “When I lived in Sweden, I went to the same hairdresser my whole life. And I now feel safe again.” 
The Mirjam mystique arrived in the United States in 2005, when a friend and fellow hairdresser who had just opened a salon in Manhattan Beach, Calif., summoned Ms. Bayoumi from Stockholm. 
“She called me and said, ‘Mirjam, I really can’t find any good colorists,’ ” Ms. Bayoumi said. “I was shocked. I was like: ‘You’re in L.A.! That’s where all the celebrities are, everybody’s blond.’ ” But when Ms. Bayoumi arrived, her new boss’s complaint was confirmed. 
“I had a few clients who used to go to salons in Beverly Hills and pay tremendous amounts of money, and they still weren’t happy with their color,” Ms. Bayoumi said. “They didn’t even know that it was possible to get this certain shade of blond.” 

Yana Paskova for The New York Times
On a Yorkville block on the Upper East Side, Mirjam Bayoumi makes Swedes' hair dreams come true.

She has heard similar frustrations from the clients she’s acquired in the four years since she moved from Los Angeles to New York, where she spent her first months coloring friends’ hair out of her Upper West Side studio apartment. Word-of-mouth recommendations soon outpaced her square footage there, and by the time she opened her salon, Ms. Bayoumi already had a cadre of loyal Swedes who were fed up with American hairdressers whose tones, they say, tended more toward warm orange than their preferred neutral beige. 
Elin Kling, the founder and fashion director of StyleBy, a fashion magazine, and a longtime patron of Ms. Bayoumi, caused a minor upset in the comments section of the beauty blog Into the Gloss last month when she told its editor, Emily Weiss, that “Americans cannot do blond hair.” 
“It’s always easier to explain in your own language exactly what you want,” said Sofi Fahrman, 33, a close friend of Princess Madeleine and the host of “Project Runway Sweden.” “It’s always safe to have a Swede doing your hair.” 
But fluency isn’t Ms. Baymoumi’s only currency. She’s also highly trained. In Sweden, she said, most hair colorists go through five years of schooling, learning color theory and chemistry. 
Ms. Bayoumi was born in Budapest to a Hungarian mother and an Egyptian father, and moved to Sweden with her family when she was 2. At 15 she began her first apprenticeship, volunteering her floor-sweeping services to Stockholm salons during school vacations. She studied in London at Toni & Guy, then worked for Bjorn Axen and Wella as a color technician, traveling to cities like Taipei and Amsterdam to educate foreign hairdressers in color blending. 
Ms. Bayoumi’s global tutelage makes her something of an expert in international beauty standards. Compared with women in Mediterranean countries, where they exaggerate their femininity, she said, Swedish women seem downright androgynous. 
“Scandinavian style in general is very simple,” she said. “They want to do as little as possible. They’re very independent — many don’t even wear makeup.” 
Marina Andersson, a makeup artist and friend of Ms. Bayoumi’s from Stockholm, agreed. “Swedes just want to look natural,” she said. “There’s brassy-yellow on the one hand and that kind of almost-gray on the other. What everyone wants is hardest to maintain.” 
Ms. Andersson described the national aesthetic as nonchalant. “We look more to the Frenchwomen, not so Hollywood,” she explained. “More Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, you know, out-of-the-shower cool.” 
And Ms. Bayoumi, she said, is the person to help achieve this. 
“Mirjam’s extremely talented,” Ms. Andersson said. “Her custom blending is very, very good. I don’t even tell her anything.” 
“She just does what goes with your complexion,” she added. “She is the Bergdorf’s for the Swedish posse of New York.”

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